Waiting in Madness
by DarukaChai
Summary: Alice, a young girl of 16, finds herself in a strange world known to its inhabitants simply as 'Madness'. Apparently now a key part of a prophecy, Alice meets many creatures and people-who she begins to call her friends-on the way to meet her destiny.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

A young spring breeze blew through the trees, ruffling their leaves with soft whispers of the night. A full moon shone brightly in the clear night sky, surrounded by thousands of bright, twinkling stars. Then through the trees came a lone black cat, his ears and tail tipped white. He was a very large cat, to say the least. He was three feet tall on all fours and five and a half feet long, including his tail. He was a majestic sight to see indeed.

He padded on until he came to a wide clearing. He stopped in the center at the wide, gnarled roots of an old, leafless tree. The cat padded around the tree, stopping to sniff it in certain places from time to time. Then he stopped all together. In front of him was a large hole, big enough for an average-sized human to crawl through. He peered down into the strange hole, leaning ever so slightly over it. Suddenly he let out a long-held mew and it echoed down the hole, sounding as if there was a long tunnel running from the hole and under the old tree. There was a scuffling sound, as if a small animal were scrambling around inside. But when the sound stopped, it was a young boy who popped his head out, not an animal.

He had snow white hair and deep blue eyes. On his pale body he wore a cream-colored, button-down shirt, which seemed to be a size too large, with a beige vest over top of it. The boy blinked in surprise as he stared into the face of the cat. His clothes had dirt spots here and there, which he brushed off neatly as he climbed out of the hole. Crouching down in front of the cat, he pulled a small, silver pocket watch out of his vest and flipped it open.

Shaking his head slightly, he closed it and said softly, "It is not time yet, Lanzá. We must wait one more day." He reached down to pet the cat, moving his hand down the top of his head. The cat purred and mewed once more, then turned back to the trees. As he headed into them, the boy slipped down the hole again, disappearing into the darkness. Scuffling sounds could be heard again, and then all was quiet.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

"Alice, would you _please_ pay attention?" a voice said from above the girl's head. Alice looked up to see her mother staring down at her. She had an annoyed look on her face and her hands were balled into loose fists at her hips.

Alice tilted her head to the side questioningly. Her mother sighed and said, "Seriously, do you ever pay attention?" Alice opened her mouth to answer, but then thought better of it and closed it again.

Her mother sighed again and turned to walk away, "Never mind, I give up for today. Go ahead and do what you want," she said over her shoulder, waving her hand in dismissal. Alice quietly got up and collected her school things.

She had been home-schooled by her mother, Anna, since she was old enough to learn—which, for her had been at the age of five. She was sixteen now and her home-schooling had become nothing more than a bother to her for the past four years so, naturally, she wasn't really giving her lessons her complete attention. Now, Alice was quite bright, yes, but she just didn't have much of an interest in learning anymore. Her mother knew that, of course, and she seemed to try less and less to get her daughter to cooperate with every day that passed. Alice had taken this opportunity to have fun and enjoy herself and so now she was headed to the woods behind her home.

She had always loved to explore there, ever since she was little, and so now every day-in the time in which she should have been focusing on her schoolwork—she had spent a lot of time there, looking for new things and places under the shady branches of the trees.

Many paths of dry, beaten soil wound through and around the many trunks with in the forest, and it was a new, unexplored one that Alice followed today. She followed it for some time, delving deeper and deeper into the trees, until the path began to swerve back and forth in a sort of zigzag pattern. It was as if a child had drawn a long, curvy line of rough soil and pebbles through the woods, without any known purpose to it. Alice stopped. In front of her was a large clearing, in the middle of which was a large tree, with gnarled roots and leafless branches. Sighing in delight, Alice ran towards the tree but then stopped once again. At the base of the old tree was a small, snow white rabbit.

Alice crept forward slowly, trying not to startle it. Suddenly, its head whipped around to stare at her. It tried to hop forward, but one of its front paws crumpled beneath him. Alice, moving more swiftly now, started towards it. The rabbit recovered and limped quickly around the other side of the tree. Alice was running now. She whipped around the tree reaching her hands out to catch the rabbit. But it was gone. Confused, Alice started to straighten up—until she saw it. A fairly large hole seemed to have been dug at the base of the tree, in between two wide roots. Kneeling down, Alice peered down into the hole. It was very dark, as if the hole led to a tunnel.

"Hello?" Alice called and her voice echoed down into the hole, only stopping after about half a minute or so. She sat there for a few moments, pondering the strange hole. Suddenly a gust of wind blew at Alice's back, along with another gust blowing down into the hole. Alice felt as if she were being pulled in, and in a matter of moments she had been sucked into the hole and was tumbling down, down, down.

Alice blinked open her eyes to darkness. She sat straight up in surprise, only to find her head bumping into the hard, brown earth above her. "Ouch!"

Rubbing the top of her head where she had hit it, she squinted her eyes. As they adjusted to the gloom, she could make out rounded dirt walls around her and a solid dirt ceiling above her, roots sticking out of it. With a jolt, Alice realized that she was inside the earth. _Where else could I be?_ she thought.

"I must have fallen down that hole…" she said to herself. Turning around where she sat, she tried to make out some sort of light, but found none. She looked around slowly, trying to find a way out of the tunnel and back up to the surface of the earth. The tunnel seemed to continue in only one direction.

"Well there's only one way to go," she mumbled, and began to crawl forward. It seemed as if she had been crawling for miles and her back had begun to ache from be hunched over for so long. _How far down did I fall? _she thought. She was about to stop and rest, when a dim light suddenly appeared in front of her. She quickly scrambled towards it. Emerging from the tunnel, Alice blinked in surprise, finding that the sun was slowly descending behind the trees. How long had she been down there? She looked around. She seemed to be back in the same clearing, and the gnarled tree was still there, behind her. Much to her surprise, most of the leaves on the trees were gone as if it were fall, although Alice knew it was still spring. On top of that, the path that had led her to the clearing was gone and the trees that had always seemed welcoming now looked dark and ominous.

Feeling somewhat frightened now, Alice shivered, even though the breeze was warm. She slowly headed into the trees, aware of every sound, if there were any sound at all that is. The only thing she could hear was the soft crunch of leaves and the occasional twig underneath her feet. She wondered on for some time, now jumping at the sound of every twig that snapped underfoot.

Suddenly, a black cat jumped out in front of her. Alice screamed. It was the largest cat she'd ever seen, what with the top of his head reaching up to her waist. Stranger still, his ears were longer than that of a normal cat-they must have been about three or four inches long and 2 inches wide-and his tail reached long out behind him, around three feet long.

The cat put a front paw to his lips—which was quite a peculiar thing for a cat to do, even and especially for one as big as this—seeming to signal for silence. Alice ceased her screaming. At this, he lowered his paw only to raise a hind one and used it to scratch behind one of his ears. As he lowered his paw once more the strangest thing happened. The cat's shape changed; growing and reforming.

Then-in flash of brilliant, white light—the cat was gone and in his place sat a boy. He seemed to be only a few years older than Alice, at her sixteen years of life. He had bright pink hair with white at the ends and deep, turquoise blue eyes. He was quite tall, while when standing would surely be a good three inches taller than Alice. His pale almost-white skin looked smooth as if it were made of porcelain. Last of all, and one of the two strangest things about him, was that instead of regular human ears a pair of cat ears sat atop his head—bright pink with white tips to match his medium-length hair—and a long tail protruding from the base of his spine—also bright pink and white.

Stunned, Alice just stared. The cat-boy stood up and walked over to her, took her hand, and placed a kiss on top of it. He looked up and said softly, "My name is Lanzá. It's quite nice to finally meet you…Alice." At this, his mouth curved into a wide grin that reached from ear to ear.

Alice pulled her hand back and stifled a shout of fright. Stepping back, she managed to choke out, "H-how do you know my name?"

Straightening up, Lanzá replied, "Oh, I believe everyone here knows _your _name." Turning away he added, "Although, I'm afraid that _my_ name is much less popular."

Blinking, Alice ventured to asked, "And where exactly is 'here'?"

Lanzá snapped his head around, making her jump. He turned and stalked back to her, only stopping when his face was a few inches from hers. She held her ground this time and he tilted his head to the side. "Madness," he replied simply and then backed away.

"….Madness?" she repeated after a moment.

"Yes, Madness."

Thoroughly confused now, Alice kept silent, until Lanzá's ears twitched and he suddenly reached out and latched onto her wrist. "Wha-"

"No time," the cat-boy hissed, pulling her through the trees.

_He's fast! _Alice thought, panting with the effort to keep up. The blur of trees and undergrowth seemed to go on forever until suddenly they stopped moving. Alice collapsed to the ground with a huff. Lanzá seemed to be unfazed by the run and was still standing and as alert and energetic as ever.

Alice looked around and noticed that the trees had thinned out and that the moon was now shining high in the night sky. "Where are we?" she asked.

Lanzá reached his arm out to pull aside a low-hanging branch, revealing a large field. In the middle of the field, Alice could just make out what looked like a long table with various colored chairs around it.

"Welcome….to Hatter's Mansion." Lanzá purred, and another ear to ear grin spread across his face.


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Lanzá led Alice across the grass toward the long table. As they neared it, Alice noticed that in front of each seat there was a teapot and several tea cups surrounding it. Each pot was of a different color and varied in size and shape. The colors varied from the deepest black to a vibrant pink, as bright as Lanzá's hair. Most of the tea pots looked rather peculiar, some of them having two or even three spouts.

At the head of the table sat a man about in his mid-twenties. He had a narrow face and high-set cheekbones. He had a reddish-brown overcoat under which he wore a black button-down shirt. And atop his sleek, jet black hair he wore a silk top hat of a deep red color.

He looked up as Alice and Lanzá approached the front of the table. He immediately placed a hand on the shoulder of the boy sitting next to him who had—until now—been previously unseen, for he had been slouched down in his chair, almost beneath the table. At the man with the hat's touch, he sat up properly. He had snow white hair and a slightly too large button-down shirt, much like the one that the man with the hat was wearing except for its creamy white color. Over the button-down, he wore a beige vest in which a small silver chain could be seen hanging out slightly from the heart-side breast pocket. "Is this her?" Alice could hear the man with the hat whisper and the white-haired boy nodded.

Hat-man rose from his seat and walked swiftly around the table, stopping directly in front of Alice. "Alice, please allow me to introduce myself," he removed his hat and bowed his head, "I am Tinniel Hatter. But, you may simply address me as 'Hatter' if you so wish."

Remembering Lanzá's earlier mention of everyone already knowing her name along with Hatter's confirming that he knew who she was at the mention of her name, Alice simply replied, "Nice to meet you."

Hatter led her to the seat next to his own and pulled it out for her. She accepted the chair gratefully, sighing as she settled down.

"Would you like some t-" Hatter began to offer, but cut himself short at a flash of light. Lanzá had returned to his cat form and was settling himself on the back of the white-haired boy's high-backed chair. Alice was somewhat surprised that he was able to fit there, since he was so big. But he did. Hatter stared at him crossly.

"For the last time, would you _please _give us some warning before you do that? It's nearly blinding," he said. Lanzá's only response was a narrowing of his eyes and a hiss that seemed to say "I'll do as I like, thank you very much."

"Such a stubborn creature," Alice could hear Hatter mumble, before he turned back to her.

"Sorry about that. Anyways, where was I? ….ah, yes! You've finally arrived," he said smiling.

"Arrived?" Alice repeated, confused.

Hatter nodded, "Yes. We've been awaiting your arrival for some time now. And thanks to Razmus here," he gestured to the white-haired boy, "you're here."

Alice turned her attention to the boy, Razmus, sitting in front of her. She narrowed her eyes. There was something familiar about him….but what? Then, her eyes fell to his left hand, which was resting on the table in front of him. It was wrapped in clean white bandages as if it were injured in some way. With a jolt, Alice realized why he was so familiar. "You're the rabbit! The one with the hurt paw!" she blurted out loudly.

Razmus jumped violently at her sudden outburst, almost falling out of his seat. "I-I apologize if I worried you," he stuttered in a quiet voice.

Hatter leaned towards Alice and said in a low voice, "Razmus here isn't too fond of loud noises or shouts. It'd be best if you spoke softly to him."

Alice turned to look at the boy and, in a much quieter voice, she said to him, "I'm sorry I startled you. I'll try to be quieter from now on." He blinked slowly and nodded as a way of thanks.

She turned back to Hatter and—returning to the original subject—asked, "Who is 'we'?"

In response, he answered with another question. "You don't know?" he breathed. Alice shook her head. At this he stood up and headed away from the table, beckoning for her to follow. Razmus and Lanza jumped down from their chair as well. As they walked across the field, Alice noticed for the first time that it had various pieces of wood and stone strewn across it. She looked up and gasped. Above her loomed the remains of what must have once been a brilliant mansion. Hatter's Mansion, she realized, remembering Lanzá's words when he had pulled aside the branch to reveal the field. Or rather, the lawn.

They entered through the crumbling archway where the doors must have been and headed farther into the ruined home. Hatter picked himself over the rubble with ease, as if he had done it many times before.

Unable to contain her curiosity any longer Alice asked, "Hatter?"

A sound of "Mm?" was his only answer.

"Why do you call this place a mansion? It's just a bunch of ruins."

Hatter froze where he was about to step over a piece of door and the rest of the group stopped with him. He whipped around to stare at Alice and, to her confusion, she could she sorrow in his deep brown gaze. His expression turned in to a face of pure anguish and he opened his mouth to answer, but then, unable to find any words, turned around again and kept walking more briskly in the direction that they had been headed. As Alice watched him stalk away, she could see that he was shaking.

At her elbow, Razmus tugged at her arm. She looked down at him and he said in his soft, quiet voice, "The Red Queen destroyed this place long ago." He started forward after Hatter, pulling Alice along with him. As they walked on, he continued solemnly, "This was his home and she took it from him. She destroyed it—and his family—and he was left alone. He was just a boy then."

Alice looked up from Razmus and stared after Hatter, who was moving forward more quickly now. His head was down and he seemed to be focusing intently on his feet. Alice tried to focus on going faster to catch up with him, but she couldn't get her mind off of what Razmus had told her. Who was the Red Queen? Whoever she was, she had destroyed Hatter's home and—from what Razmus had said—she had killed his family as well. Alice suddenly felt very much attached to Hatter, although she couldn't place the reason as to why. She had only met him minutes ago, so why did she feel as if she had known him for forever? And it wasn't just Hatter. She liked Lanzá and Razmus a lot as well.

As she pondered this, the group had come to a stop. When Alice looked up, she could see that they were standing in front of a large, crumbling staircase. Hatter seemed to step into the side of it, suddenly disappearing. Alice strained her neck to the side until she could see that he had not simply just disappeared. There was a door in the side of the staircase and it now stood ajar, where Hatter had entered. After a few moments Hatter re-emerged. In his hands he held a tiny box, smaller than the size of his palm.

He held the out box to Razmus, who detached himself from Alice's arm to take it. When he opened it, there seemed to be nothing inside. Until Razmus closed it again, tapped the top of it four times with one fingernail and whispered, "Twinkle, twinkle, little bat."

The box seemed to tremble a bit and when the boy opened it once again, there was a tiny, golden key glittering at the bottom. He withdrew the key and handed the box back to Hatter. He tugged at the silver chain hanging from the breast pocket of his vest—the one Alice had noticed earlier. Alice could now see that attached to the chain, was a small silver pocket watch, about the same size as the box. He turned the watch over to show that there was a tiny key hole on the backside, too small to fit a regular sized key, but just big enough for the key from the box.

Turning to look up at Alice, he said, "I must warn you. What you're about to see has already been predetermined to occur. And it may shock you. Are you ready?"

Alice nodded confidently, unaware that what she was about to see would change her life forever.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

Razmus inserted the tiny key into the keyhole and turned it. The watch flipped open on its own and images appeared in the air above it. The strange thing was, the images seemed to come from looking through their own eyes, as if they were watching it from the viewpoint of another—first-person perspective, some would have called it. Whoever's eyes Alice and the other three were watching through, they were running.

Trees blurred past their eyes until they disappeared altogether. They were in what looked like a wasteland now, and the few bushes that were growing were leafless and withering. Suddenly they came to a stop, a few yards away from the back of a young woman, whose long, crimson hair blew gently in the breeze. The woman's arms went up, a slender sword grasped in her hands. She seemed to say something quietly before plunging the blade down. A scream of pure agony went to the air, echoing in Alice's ears. The scream cut off and a rapid panting of breath began. Blood spread slowly across the hard ground. The red-haired woman started to turn, stepping away from the growing pool of blood.

Then Alice heard the watch snap shut and the image disappeared. Razmus' hand rested gently on the watch. He was the one who had shut it, stopping the vision. Alice collapsed to the ground, her eyes wide with shock. _I've just seen murder... _she thought. She began to shiver now and she jumped when a hand rested itself upon her shoulder. She looked up into the soft chocolate eyes of Hatter. They were deep with sympathy, but also fear. Finding some comfort in his gaze, her shivers became less violent and her ragged breathing calmed. He reached out his arms and she rested her head on his shoulder. After staying like this for a few minutes, Alice had recovered from her shock almost completely, although when she spoke her voice still shook.

"Wh-who was it? Who did she kill?" she asked, directing her question to Razmus, since he seemed as if he'd know the most about this vision. Besides, he was the one that had the watch.

But he averted her eyes, looking down at the watch and tracing the edge of it with a finger. "I do not know…. It was not foretold…." he answered quietly. Alice felt that he wasn't telling her everything, but she let it go….for the time being.

Realizing she had been leaning on Hatter for some time, she pulled away from him, blushing. He stood up and held out his hand to help her up. She took it gratefully and stood. Turning back to look at Razmus again, she asked "What was that? That vision."

The boy glanced up to look back at her. "We call it 'The Prophecy of Alice'," he replied, "Although what you just saw was not the entirety of it. It-"

"Then why did you stop it?" Alice interrupted.

Razmus froze and was quiet for a few moments. Then, seemingly ignoring her question, he changed the subject. "It is so called, because it focuses on a single individual. A girl called Alice. You." he said, finishing his last sentence by nodding at Alice.

"Yes, but-" Alice started, but then stopped, realizing what Razmus meant. "Wait…._me?_"

The rabbit-boy nodded, his expression grim. "The prophecy states that you will defeat the Red Queen and bring peace to our world. This world. Madness."

'Madness'. That was what Lanzá had said when Alice had asked him where she was. And Razmus had just said it again. She could only assume that 'Madness' was the name of this strange world that she found herself in now. But that was of little importance, especially at this moment.

"And that was the Red Queen?" she asked, pointing at the pocket watch. She had meant the crimson-haired woman in the vision that had come from the watch. Razmus seemed to understand what she meant and nodded again.

"Well, I can't do that," she said, shaking her head vigorously, "Not me. I don't know how to fight! I don't know who you people are! I don't even know how I got here!"

Alice was becoming hysterical now and she started to back away from the strange group that stood in front of her. Razmus, whose grave expression had not changed. Hatter, who wore a look of deep sadness. And Lanzá who, still in his cat form, sat on the ground with his ears and head drooping.

Alice spun around and started to run back in the direction they had come in. She didn't get very far until she felt a tugging at the hem of her skirt. She stopped and turned to find that Lanzá had clamped his mouth onto her skirt and was trying to pull her back to the crumbling staircase. Alice knelt down and the cat released her. She rested her hand on top of his sleek, black head. His eyes were now level with hers and he stared at her, his deep blue eyes pleading.

They stared at each other for a few moments until Alice shook her head and sighed. All the convincing that she needed was in that gaze. The pain, the sadness, the suffering. All of it was in that one look and Alice realized that they needed her—and there was nothing she could do to change that. With Lanzá at her side, she slowly walked back to stand in front of the others.

"I'm sorry," she said in a small voice, "I just don't understand how I could help you." She took a deep breath.

"But I'll do what I can," she finished with a small nod. Hatter and Razmus glanced at each other for a moment, and then Hatter stepped forward taking Alice's hand.

"Thank you," he whispered and Alice gave him a small smile.

"There's something I need to know first though….how do you know that _I'm_ the one you need? There are plenty of other girls named 'Alice' out there. Why me?"

Razmus cleared his throat and they turned to look at him. "If it is proof that you need then I believe I know what will convince you." He took a deep breath and then said, "You must see the other two thirds of the prophecy."

Alice tilted her head to the side and her brow furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"The Prophecy of Alice comes in three parts. Each unlocked by a different key inserted into my pocket watch," Razmus explained, holding up the silver watch as he spoke the last sentence. Tucking the watch back into his heart-side breast pocket he continued, "We have the Golden Key, which just showed us the first part of the prophecy. Or rather the second part. They keys don't necessarily show the Prophecy in order of occurrence. They seem to go in order of importance."

As Razmus finished speaking Alice, realized that she'd never heard Razmus speak that much. Then she asked, "You said that we have the Golden Key. Does that mean that someone else has the other two keys?"

"Precisely," Razmus replied, "The other two keys—the Silver and Bronze Keys—are under the protection of a friend of Hatter's and Lanzá's sister. We must go to each of them and use the Keys to see the next parts of the prophecy."

He paused before continuing, "If you'll let us take you, that is."

Alice took a deep breath before answering, "I will."

Razmus closed his eyes and bowed his head in thanks. He lifted his head to look over at Hatter, "To Duchess Suzanne then?"

Hatter nodded, with the hints of a small smile on his lips. Then he went back into the room under the staircase and returned a moment later with two swords, once attached to his left hip and the other in his hands. A belt hung from this second sword that swung unbuckled as Hatter walked. Stopping to stand in front of Alice, he held it out to her.

"Here," he said softly, "You'll need this where we're going."


End file.
